Oxymoron, Simile, Hyperbole.

Oxymoron is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense, for example: 'low skyscraper', 'sweet sorrow', 'nice rascal'

If the primary meaning of the qualifying word changes or weakens, the stylistic effect of oxymoron is lost. This is the case with what were once oxymoronic combinations, for example, 'terribly sorry'.

We have already pointed out that there are different ratios of emotive-logical relations in epithets. In some of them the logical meaning is hardly perceived, in others the two meanings co-exist. In oxymoron the logical meaning holds fast because there is no true word-combination, only the juxtaposition of two non-combinative words.

But still we may notice a peculiar change in the meaning of the quali­fying word. It assumes a new life in oxymoron, definitely indicative of the assessing tendency in the writer's mind.

       The intensification of some one feature of the concept in question is realized in a device called simile. Ordinary comparison and simile must not be confused. They represent two diverse processes. Comparison means weighing two objects belonging to one class of things with the purpose of establishing the degree of their sameness or difference. To use a simile is to characterize one object by bringing it into contact with an­other object belonging to an entirely different class of things.

Blind as a bat, faithful as a dog, to work like a horse.

Sometimes the simile-forming like is placed at the end of the phrase almost merging with it and becoming half-suffix, for example:

"Emily Barton was very pink, very Dresden-china-shepherdess like."

Another SD which also has the function of intensifying one certain property of the object described is hyperbole. It can be defined as a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature essential (unlike periphrasis) to the object or phenomenon. In its extreme form this exagge­ration is carried to an illogical degree, sometimes ad absurdum. For example:

"He was so tall that I was not sure he had a face.

Another examples " A thousand pardons'; 'scared to death'

10. Cliches, Proverbs & Sayings, Quotations.

A cliche is generally defined as an expression that has become hackneyed and trite. A cliche... has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long over-use.

Examples of real cliches are 'rosy dreams of youth', 'the patter of little feet', 'deceptively simple'.

Proverbs and sayings are facts of language. They are collected in dictionaries. There are special dictionaries of proverbs and sayings.

Proverbs and sayings have certain purely linguistic features which must always be taken into account in order to distinguish them from ordinary sentences. Proverbs are brief statements showing in condensed [form the accumulated life experience of the community and serving as conventional practical symbols for abstract ideas.

Many of them through frequency of repeti­tion have become polished and wrought into verse-like shape, as in the following:

"to cut one's coat according to one's cloth." "Early to bed and early to rise, Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

But the main feature distinguishing proverbs and sayings from or­dinary utterances remains their semantic aspect. Their literal meaning is suppressed by what may be termed their transferred meaning. In other words, one meaning (literal) is the form for another meaning (transferred) which contains the idea. Proverbs and sayings, if used appropriately, will never lose their freshness and vigour.

A quotation is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech and the like used by way of authority, illustration, proof or as a basis for further speculation on the matter in hand.

By repeating a passage in a new environment, we attach to the ut­terance an importance it might not have had in the context whence it was taken. Quotations are usually marked off in the text by inverted commas (" "), dashes (—), italics or other graphical means.

Quotations, unlike epigrams, need not necessarily be short. A whole paragraph or a long passage may be quoted if it suits the purpose. "Socrates said, our only knowledge was “To know that nothing could be known"